Why Pokémon Fans Are Split on the New Mythical
The newly revealed Zarude has a tough, intimidating design, but its ability has left many Pokemon fans underwhelmed.
You Are Reading :Why Pokémon Fans Are Split on the New Mythical
Category : Pokemon
A new Mythical Pokémon has been revealed. After weeks of teases, fans have finally gotten a look at Zarude, a Dark/Grass-type simian creature known as the Rogue Monkey Pokémon. Mythical Pokémon typically fit into one of two categories: There are small, cute ones like Mew, Celebi and Shaymin, and the tough, intimidating ones like Deoxys, Arceus and Unbound Form Hoopa. Zarude easily fits into the latter category. It is nearly six feet tall with a black-and-gray body, red eyes, and green vines around its wrists and growing from its neck and feet.
While some fans have praised the Zarude’s design, many are disappointed with the new Pokémon for a different reason: its Leaf Guard ability.
Although it’s far from the worst of ability, Leaf Guard is not a particularly good one. It prevents a Pokémon from having non-volatile status conditions (like sleep, poison and paralysis) inflicted upon them while battling in harsh sunlight. It also has no effect on conditions present before the weather conditions are set up, so a poisoned Zarude whose opponent uses Sunny Day will still be poisoned afterward. Abilities like Leaf Guard are only useful in specific circumstances, making them not very useful in general.
Pokémon who currently have Leaf Guard include Tsareena, Jumpluff and Leafeon, none of whom are particularly strong and all of whom have alternate abilities. Since its a Mythical, Zarude won’t have either a Second or Hidden Ability, meaning it’ll be stuck with Leaf Guard.
As event-exclusive Pokémon, Mythicals are supposed to be rare and powerful.; that’s why they are banned from competitive play. Even though Zarude’s lackluster ability will have no effect on the metagame, it’s still disappointing for those who were hoping the new Mythical would bring with it interesting new gameplay. Many Mythicals have introduced new and unique abilities, such as Darkrai’s Bad Dreams or Arceus’ Multitype.
Even those with previously existing abilities have more useful ones, like Meloetta and Jirachi’s Serene Grace, and Diancie’s Clear Body. Only Manaphy has a similar ability with Hydration, which has the same effect as Leaf Guard except it is activated by rain. Even then, Manaphy receives further benefits from the rain as a Water-type, while harsh sunlight strengthens the power of Fire-type moves, something Zarude is weak against.
Although the reveal trailer ends by stating that more information on Zarude is coming, that likely refers to details on distribution rather than new revelations about the Pokémon itself. If there was more significant information on Zarude that The Pokémon Company wasn’t quite ready to reveal — a new ability, for example — it likely would have teased it there. The company did that last year when Galarian Weezing was revealed with the abilities Levitate and “???,” later revealed to be a new exclusive ability for the Koffing line, Neutralizing Gas.
From a lore perspective, Leaf Guard makes sense as Zarude’s ability. According to the Pokémon website, Zarude’s uses its vines to swing from trees and grab distant items, and these vines also have healing properties. This information about the Pokémon itself explains why an intimidating Pokémon that the website also describes as hostile and relentless would have a plant-based healing ability, but it would have been nice to see Zarude get something unique and more generally useful.
On top of its underwhelming ability, fans have pointed out other concerns: Zarude is another primate Grass-type in a region in which Pokémon like that already exist in the form of the Grookey line. Plus, Zarude is said to live in dense forests, but its typing gives it a quadruple weakness to Bug-type moves.
Still, there’s a chance this Pokémon will be seen in a better light once fans really get to see it in action. It was already announced that the then unannounced Mythical would play a significant role in the annual Pokémon movie, so hopefully Pokémon the Movie: Coco will be Zarude’s chance to shine.
See more : PokemonWe